Grant Shapps has indicated that Britain may leave the European Union if David
Cameron’s strategy to renegotiate the terms of the country’s membership
fails.

Grant Shapps, the Conservative Party chairman, said “we will be in a different position” over Britain’s EU membership “if we can’t get any powers back”.

The disclosure comes after other ministers refused to answer questions publicly on the Government’s position if the renegotiation strategy fails.

Last week, in a landmark speech, the Prime Minister pledged to renegotiate Britain’s membership of the EU and hold a referendum on the revised relationship by 2017.

Mr Cameron has stressed that he is confident that a new British deal can be secured, despite warnings that some other European leaders will block the repatriation of powers. The Prime Minister has said he does not want Britain to leave the EU.

Yesterday, when asked whether the Government would back Britain leaving the EU if renegotiation failed, Mr Shapps said: “I think that most people in this country agree that Europe isn’t what we originally signed up for. It has changed dramatically and so let’s see if we can get some of those powers back.

“If we can’t get any powers back at all then we’ll be in a different position.”

He said that it would ultimately be for the public, not ministers, to decide whether the renegotiation was radical enough. “Tens of millions of people will be empowered to make this decision so actually in a sense it doesn’t really matter how I vote,” he said.

“We’ve already had [Angela] Merkel and other leaders saying there can be a negotiation, of course there can, this country is perfectly at liberty to do that and people can decide: Do they think they’ve got enough and do they want to be in or out?”

Yesterday, several opinion polls showed a Conservative bounce following Mr Cameron’s referendum pledge. The UK Independence Party said that it would focus on targeting Labour voters after Ed Miliband appeared to be against an in/out referendum.

However, there is still great uncertainty about renegotiating Britain’s EU relationship – with the repatriation of powers likely to prove contentious among Tory MPs. Several Cabinet ministers have privately indicated they would back an “out” vote without the significant repatriation.

The Liberal Democrats have opposed Mr Cameron’s position but refuse to rule out supporting a referendum.

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said yesterday: “My priority will always remain a simple objective of building a stronger economy in a fairer society, enabling everybody to get on in life.

“And I think that job is made more difficult if you have years and years of tying yourself up in knots having arcane debates about the precise terms of the membership of the European Union before we get to a referendum.”